Bolt's Soul Chronicles Book 2: Blackened Hearts
by cloudsword
Summary: Now that Dark Bolt's in control, Mittens must chase after him and put a stop to his destruction. With the help of her friends Rhino and Angelira, she learns, new more powerful magic to wield. But, is it enough? Please, READ AND REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1 Magical

**Soul Chronicles: Blackened Hearts**

**This is this second book in the sequel to my Warrior's Soul books. I however do not own Bolt or any of its characters, Disney does!**

**Narration:**

Have you ever been stuck between a rock and a hard spot? Had to make a choice between two evils? It's a difficult thing to do, and no matter how strong you are it almost always seems to be impossible. I never really understood what it meant until now. My husband possessed by his own darkness, wielding a power that even he couldn't fully control. So far I have two choices; just keep running from him and hope he gets tired, or turn around and face him in a fight that I'm almost certain to lose. I can't turn to anyone now except my friends, Rhino the hamster and his ex-girlfriend Angelira the currently shrunken Neutrosian. Dark Bolt now hunts for us, and all I can do is cry as I curl up into a tight ball on my old ripped bed. I'm a magical tuxedo cat named…

**Chapter 1 – Magical**

"Mittens!" Rhino the super genius hamster called out as he rolled his ball through the nearly collapsed hallway. He was happy that he had been able to get the ceiling to stay up with some remaining supports he found around the outside of their old destroyed home. Angelira walked behind him, still in her miniature state. Her golden hair tied back by a piece of thread she had found and hanging over her left shoulder. She gripped her right arm as she followed behind him, her catlike eyes turned to the floor in sadness. "Come on!" Rhino said to the weeping cat as he neared her. The old bed she had dug up was once hers and Bolt's. Rhino took a small moment to remember the day Penny had brought it home.

He had been out shopping with Penny and Mittens after the three of them had fended off the Neutrosian invasion, and Mittens had turned her head to see the fluffy bed just sitting there. Her eyes had opened wide at the sight of it, the overly large black and white bed was cushioned just right when she walked into it, and without her claws, pushed on the sides. They lifted up from the actual bed, kind of like a railing, but still cushioned just the same. "It's perfect!" she had said, causing Penny to turn to her. Rhino hadn't really understood then what was so special about a bed, but as he now watched her cry in it, he knew, it was the memories that came with it.

"We…" he tried to say, and swallowed a lump in his throat, trying to stay the strong one, "we need to get him back!" he choked out. Mittens just seemed to curl up tighter. "Mittens?" she heard Angelira ask. The Neutrosian flapped her wings, lifting into the air to softly land on the ripped surface of the bed in front of Mittens. The tears she saw from the cat kept on coming, "We'll get him back!" she said, and patted her friend on the head. "I don't know." Mittens finally said, "I just don't see a way to stop him!" Rhino huffed, and then lifted his hand to say something, but found nothing to say. In all his wisdom, even he couldn't think of how to stop his best friend Bolt. Rhino let not only his finger fall, but also his confidence. "There has to be a way Mittens!" Angelira said, "We just need to keep looking!"

"Earth has no magic books, Angelira, and the O-TIP in the basement has been destroyed." Mittens responded. Rhino clenched his paws into a fist, "Oooh that…Nightmare!" he nearly growled, "How dare he destroy that machine, I worked really hard on it!" Angelira turned her head to the hamster, and scowled, "You're not helping!" she hissed. "Sorry!" Rhino said as he was snapped out of his angry revere. "Just leave me alone right now!" Mittens said sadly. Rhino let his jaw drop slightly, before he closed it sadly and turned around, "Ok," he said, "But you know where to find us if you change your mind." Angelira flapped her wings, lifting herself over the cat and landed behind Rhino's ball, walking away as well. Mittens kept on sniffing in her sorrows, 'I know I need to try, but I don't know where to start!' she told herself, and cried some more. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep.

Deep inside her mind, she had a dream; it showed her getting pummeled by her own husband, and the creature Nightmare. Eventually the two turned on each other with her still alive, each wanting to claim her as their own prey. Dark Bolt easily won against the creature, but as Dark Bolt searched his kill for any signs of life, the mask jumped off and latched itself to him. It seemed as if the two of them merged together and became one, ruling the world in both destruction and greed.

Mittens actually jumped up, leaping from the ground almost a foot from the fear she felt. She breathed in deep, calming her nerves as she panted, and finally noticed the ground. Instead of her torn up bed, she found the space she was in filled with nothing, and yet everything at once. Flashes of the world she lived in faded in and out, each one a different area, from forests to deserts and snow covered mountains. Parts of the area around her flashed differently, each one changing from nothing to a faded image of the land she knew. "Where am I?" she asked herself. She knew she wasn't awake, yet she didn't fell asleep either. She lifted a paw as the image of a rock floated under her, and she turned to follow it. Looking up, she found a group of animals and two human, huddled together in the distance. "Um…Hello?" Mittens called out, and began to walk towards them. "I think I'm lost!" she said as she got closer, catching the younger human's attention, "If you could just tell me where…" she was about to say, and quickly recognized the girl, "PENNY!?" she called out. "MITTENS!" Penny called back and ran from the group towards her. Mittens picked up her pace happily, and jumped into Penny's arms as they met in the middle. "Oh I missed you!" Mittens and Penny said at the same time, as they embraced each other. Penny's mother lifted her eyes, spying the happy pair as they kept a hold of each other. "Where's Bolt?" Penny suddenly asked, "Did he survive the attack from Nightmare? What happened to you three? You didn't appear here like we did?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down Penny!" Mittens interrupted, "One at a time!"

"Sorry!" Penny said. "Bolt's fine, the three of us were sent into space somehow and got our real powers back!" Mittens explained. "Your powers, but how?" Penny asked, "They were given to you by the Warrior's Soul."

"The Warrior's Soul is back!" Mittens said, "Except now it belongs to us, it is our souls, I think!"

"How is that possible?" Penny asked. "I don't know!" Mittens said in response, "But Bolt…he isn't himself!"

"Why?" Penny asked, "What happened?"

"Dad's been overtaken by darkness, hasn't he?" they heard. Penny and Mittens turned their eyes to the ground next to them. There stood Mittens' son, Mike. The puppy with cat ears and chipmunk stripes sat there, looking at her, a kind of knowing in his eyes. Mittens lowered her ears to her head, "Yes Mike, he did." she said, knowing full well that lying to him would do no good, he could just listen to the truth inside her head. "I knew it. I could feel it." he responded. "But what kind of darkness?" Anna, a perfect white cat, asked as she walked up next to him. "His own." Mittens responded solemnly. Mike let his jaw drop to the ground, "His…own?" Penny asked as she set Mittens down on the ground. "Yes, and all I did was run." she responded. Mittens watched as her friends lowered their heads in a kind of shame, and she placed her face on the ground. "What else could you have done?" she heard Anna's mother ask from her place with the rest of the group. Mittens lifted only her eyes to look at the back of her clone's head, the inverted color pattern on the cat's fur was easily recognizable, "Nothing, that's right!" Sassy said, "Bolt is stronger than you and faster than you."

"He's completely heartless now. His darkness actually takes pleasure in killing others." Mittens said. Sassy turned her attention to a very large black cat next to her, "So, he's the complete opposite of Bolt then." Shadows said, his eyes never moving from the spot on the ground. "What are you guys looking at?" Mittens finally asked in curiosity, and lifted herself to go find out. She was only able to take a few steps when Shadows stood up, and moved to the other side of his wife, Sassy. Mittens could finally see Kevin, the shy grey cat, lying on the ground, unmoving except for his chest. His lungs expanded and shrank with air as he breathed in his sleep. "Is he…?" Mittens tried to ask, and was stopped by Penny. "He's alright." the human said, "He's just asleep. Exhausted from bringing us here!"

"And where is here?" Mittens asked as she looked around. "The Astral Plane!" Mike responded, "A world between here and there, a place of Limbo, neither dead nor living." Mittens glanced around, the places still changing, some familiar and some not. "How did I get here?" she asked. "I brought you here in your dream." Mike explained, "I wanted you to know that we were alright." Mittens shook her head, "I need your help!" she said, finally turning back to the Kits, "Your father needs to be stopped, changed back to his old self. I can't do it alone! Just wake Kevin up and get him to do it again!"

"We can't." she heard her son, Wolf the grey and white puppy with the face of a cat, say from the group. He kept his eyes down to Kevin, almost waiting for him to wake up.

"I'm sorry mother," Mike said as he looked down to the floor, "but we'll be stuck in this astral world until Kevin can wake up, and judging by how much of his power was used to get here, that might be a while." Mittens turned her pointed ears down and looked to her paws, "So I'm all that's left to stop him." she whispered. Wolf looked up, seeing his mother so disappointed nearly broke his heart, so he lifted himself up, "Listen mother, you can't give up on dad, he needs you more than ever now." he said. "Skylar has lots of books from Neutros, many containing new spells and magic. Maybe you can learn a few from them." Penny suggested. Mittens looked up, hope filling her eyes, "It's the best shot I have!" she said, "Thank you all." and with a flash of light, she woke up, the ruins of her old house surrounding her once again, "Don't worry Bolt, I'm coming!" and without announcing where she was going, took off out the window using her wind claws.

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2 Hunt

**Chapter 2 - Hunt**

Bolt once again opened his eyes to see his darker half staring at him, pleasure set on his greedy face, "Have a nice sleep?" Dark Bolt asked. Bolt simply turned his head away, trying not to look him in the eye. "Did you have a nightmare?" Dark Bolt mocked, mimicking the way Bolt would talk to a small child. Bolt kept his eyes away from the bully, he knew Dark Bolt wouldn't ever let him live it down if he showed any sort of fear or misery, so he simply ignored the beast. Even with the heavy chains around him, he kept to himself, "One of these days I'll catch something to tease you about mutt!" the black shepherd said, "It's far too boring in here!" and vanished, fading away to take control of the body once again. "Why?" Bolt whispered to himself, "Why did you leave? Mittens I can't do this without you!"

On the outside, Dark Bolt snapped his eyes open and smiled, and with a stretch of his legs he stood up, "I think they've gotten enough distance now." he said to himself, "Time for the hunt to begin again!" With a mighty push of his four legs, he took off, dashing away from the crumbled town he had claimed as his bed for the night, "_Haven't you killed enough yet?_" he heard Bolt ask. "Oh so you can talk!" Dark Bolt commented, "I'd almost forgotten you had a voice! Besides, it was you who didn't save them Bolt!" He could feel Bolt's ears as they fell against the white shepherd's head, "_But, I couldn't…_" he heard Bolt whisper. With a silent chuckle, Dark Bolt once again continued his hunt.

Deep inside one of the buildings, Savage, the white Siberian tiger-lady with furry wings, stood at the opening of her hiding spot. Behind her she heard a deep yawn, as if someone were waking up behind her, "When you said Bolt was dangerous, I never expected this!" she said without turning around. "Neither did I. He usually avoids killing others." the man said. When Savage turned around she saw him, the man was handsome, sharp chinned with only a single small scar on his cheek. His brown hair tussled from the long sleep he had, and his shirt removed, revealing a small but toned build. 'He's probably trying to seduce me!' she thought to herself. "Whatever you did, it cost me the lives of my entire gang!" he scowled at her. "ME?" she asked, only slightly offended. "Yah, you! You just had to go it alone didn't you?" he asked, "Got a little too cocky, and pissed off the super dog!" Savage pointed her clawed pointer finger at him, "Don't tempt me!" she said, "I could easily send you to join them!"

"Psh!" he said, "Then what? You try to take Bolt on alone the way he is? He's had plenty of time to cool down and yet he still hunts us." Savage lowered her hand, the man's words rang true, "He'd slaughter you the second he saw you, just like he's been doing to everyone!" the man said. Savage gritted her teeth, and lifted her hand again, this time pointing the back of her hand to him. "What's that mean?" the man asked. "I believe you humans do this to signify hatred." she said. "Nope, it's this!" he said, and lifted his fist, sticking only his middle finger up at her. Savage looked to her hand, all five of her fingers up, and slowly, lowered the other fingers, mirroring his gesture. "Better!" he said, and they suddenly heard a loud growl. "SHIT!" the man said, and lunged to Savage, grabbing her and pulling her to the side right before the door exploded from a bark. "Dammit!" the man whispered and lifted himself up, followed quickly by Savage and the two of them jumped out of a window close by. The building quickly collapsed behind them, and the two ran from the scene, never once looking back, "He found us!" Savage said, "How did he find us?"

"It's cause you were being a loud…" The man said and she heard him get tackled by something. Savage turned around, spying a large Rottweiler dog wearing a bone mask with crimson eyes just glaring at the man. "DUSTIN!" she called out, catching the creatures attention. Nightmare growled angrily as he glared at her, and turned only when he heard the walls crumble to dust behind him. "Well, well, well!" Dark Bolt said as he stalked up to them, "Nightmare! Out for a little stroll are we?" Nightmare growled at him, "You seem familiar…" he said, and suddenly made the connection, "Power guardian! My, my. The new you is quite a change!" Nightmare said as he lifted himself off of Dustin. The two dogs circled each other, both glaring into the others' soul, "My sins are a good look for me!" Dark Bolt said and lunged at Nightmare! The masked Rottweiler jumped to the side, dodging Dark Bolt completely, and the two began to circle again. Savage silently lifted her partner up off of the ground, and the two snuck away from the warring titans. "I've been waiting for this!" Nightmare said and lunged at Bolt. The shepherd dodged left, and the dance began again, "Sorry, but it looks like you'll have to wait an eternity!" Dark Bolt said and lunged at him, this time using super speed and slamming his head into the still dead chest of Nightmare.

Mittens soared through the sky, scanning the ground for the house she sought. The only real damage was her block, every house had been destroyed, in Nightmare's quest to find them, and now she was glad that Clera and Skylar lived so far away. First she found Clera's house, the medium sized light blue house with the grass green roof stood out from the rest of the houses, because it was the only house made by Neutrosian magic. The sides of the house looked like the rest of the houses, with the siding moving sideways. But upon closer inspection, one could see that the sides were made from single piece of wood growing up from the ground. All four walls were like that and painted with a special Neutrosian paint that Skylar had invented on his stay on Earth. The roof was the top of a tree, woven branches sealed it shut and moss covered it all. However she was not without her Earthly pleasures. Clera had installed a dish and electricity throughout the entire house, and had allowed the designers to pipe in running water before she had the house 'Grown-in'. The door was a large French front door, and from the car in the drive way, Clera was home.

Mittens dived down, making her way to Clera's front door, and meowed loudly. "I'm coming!" she heard Clera's excited voice from inside. When the inside door opened, Clera stood there, her short stature and large bust accented by the casual black shirt and black jeans she wore. "Mittens?" she asked and opened the glass front door, "I thought you were Sassy!" Mittens placed one of her paws behind her head, "Yah, about them!" she began.

Once again Dark Bolt and Nightmare separated, neither of them out of breath as they clashed. Suddenly Nightmare howled. All around Dark Bolt, the ground began to collapse, his paws sinking in as he just stood there. "Is that the best you got?" Dark Bolt asked. Again Nightmare howled, the pressure increasing, and yet Dark Bolt still stood, a small crater forming around him. "Impossible!" Nightmare said, "It only took two howls to make you fall last time!" Dark Bolt grinned, "Not me." he said, "I wanted to keep going, but my weaker self decided that his family was more important." Nightmare howled again, the crater growing in size, and again Dark Bolt continued to stand there. "Wait, weaker self?" he asked as the words finally caught up with him. "Oh, yes!" the shepherd said, "I am Bolt's sins and misery, you may call me Dark Bolt!" he said and lifted his chin, taking a deep breath. With a powerful bark the ground in front of him was up turned, defying even the increased gravity as the sound slammed right into Nightmare. "OOF!" he said as he was knocked to the ground, "That actually hurt!" he said to himself. When he was enveloped by a shadow, he looked up and found Dark Bolt standing there. Quickly the shepherd opened his mouth, and snapped his jaws around the snout of the mask, and with one mighty pull, ripped it free of the dead Rottweiler's face. Dark Bolt tossed the mask aside as the body flopped down, quickly shriveling into a half rotten corpse. The mask sailed across the sky, landing close to a long stretch of badlands. "Now, no one can stop me!" Dark Bolt grinned and turned back to the destroyed city. "Ready or not, here I come!" he growled menacingly as he hunted the two who escaped him.

Back at the edge of town, Nightmare's mask sat there still, even as other animals walked on by. Suddenly a brown cotton tail rabbit spotted it, hopping close by to examine it and the mask quickly leached out as if it were putty and wrapped itself around the poor animal's head. The rabbit struggled as heard as it could, trying to rip the mask from its face, but quickly fell silent and still. The mask shaped itself, forming into the rabbit's skull, but instead with large vampire fangs instead of bucked teeth. Suddenly the body grew, finding a size about the same as a cat, and the fur faded to a midnight black color. The eyes opened, shining crimson as they looked towards where Dark Bolt had walked off to. "Next time!" he said, and growled.

**End Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3 Light

**Chapter 3 – Light**

Mittens walked back outside with Clera at her heals, "So you see why I have to do this?" she asked. Clera simply nodded and turned to the street leading to Penny's house, "Are you sure Shadows and Sassy are alright?" she asked. "The kittens are with them, they'll be fine." Mittens explained, "Hopefully Kevin will wake up soon, and they can come to our aid. But just in case that doesn't happen, I need you to take care of Rhino and Angelira for me."

"It sounds like you aren't planning on coming back." Clera said. Mittens closed her eyes and took off, lifting with her wind claws into the air before stopping and turning around, "I'm sure as hell going to try!" she said, and took off again, finding her way to Skylar's apartment. Clera looked after her a while, watching as she left before turning back to the road, and then turning simply her head, watched nervously as the last family she had on this world disappeared behind a cloud.

Mittens let the feeling of the wind brush through her fur as she sailed over the clouds. The bright sun warmed her up as the wind cooled her down, creating a perfect balance of temperatures. She felt so comfortable, that she almost forgot to look down, "There!" she said as she spotted a very elaborate building. The white marble mixed with the red of the brick made it a one of a kind high-end apartment building. Mittens turned down dropping towards the roof of the building and flaring just in time to set down gently. At first the roof felt fine, but then she began to hop up and down because of the burning roof, and made her way quickly to the shade. "You really have a way of entertaining me!" she heard a familiar posh voice say. Mittens turned her head to the voice and saw a young Neutrosian wearing a white tank top and brown shorts. The yellow flip flops he wore with his bright brown sunglasses told her exactly what he was doing in the outlandish lawn chair he was laying on. His hair was still slicked back as usual, but now he had an air of humor around him rather than just stubborn pride. "Skylar?" she asked, "What are you doing?"

"I believe it is obvious." he said, "I'm tanning!"

Mittens scoffed, shaking her head as she said, "What for, I mean!" Skylar smiled brightly, "I plan on surprising Penny now that I'm back from my journey!" he said. Mittens lowered her eyes and ears tot eh shaded ground she now stood upon, I'm sorry, but the house is destroyed." she said solemnly. Skylar grabbed the sunglasses from off of his face and sat up, "Please tell me that my love is safe!" he pleaded as he looked to the cat. "She's safe." Mittens said quickly, "She's just trapped in an astral plane with Shadows, Sassy, the Kits and kittens."

"How can I be of assistance, I assume Bolt is trying to free them at this moment!" the Neutrosian boy said. "No," Mittens said, "He's not. He's actually on a rampage right now!" Skylar lifted his eyebrow in confusion, "Excuse me?" he asked. "Let's go inside, that way I can talk without cooking my paws and you won't get sunburned!" she said and quirked a smile. Skylar looked down at his arms, and indeed they were almost red.

Dark Bolt growled as he stalked his prey, he was sure they were in that building. An old shopping mall would have been perfect, beside they needed some fresh clothing, he was sure of it. With a smile on his face he walked towards the doors and smiled as they opened for him, "Heh!" he scoffed, "Just like my life so far!" he said. "_Just leave them alone!_" he heard Bolt say. "And let evil get away?" he asked. "_But what you're doing is evil._" Bolt said. "What I am doing was necessary!" he said, "I'm going to rid the world of people who would cause other's pain!" and Dark Bolt walked deeper into the collection of stores, a smile on his face, believing that his words had truly silenced the hero within him.

"…and that's what happened." Mittens said as she finished her story. Skylar placed his overly tan hand against his chin, "Well, you weren't mistaken coming here!" he said, "I do have one book that might be of better help to you than the rest, however, it is advance magic. Very powerful, and can be very dangerous." he said. "Will it help me against Dark Bolt?" she asked. "Yes." he said, "But you must master all of it to really be of any match." the Neutrosian boy said. "I'll give it my best shot." she said with confidence and watched as Skylar turned, grabbing a large brown book off of the shelf. The ornate cover was filled with vines and roses, and one single letter on the front, an 'R' formed out of the vines. "This is the Ricoda Book of Magic." he explained, "She was one of the only Neutrosian sorceresses to be able to master almost all of the elements known to magic, and has a very special way of teaching you."

"What do you mean special?" Mittens asked nervously, and Skylar let go of the book. Instead of dropping to the ground, the book stayed floating there, and Skylar dropped to the round, crossing his legs and placing his hands on his knees. He closed his eyes and began mumbling something that even Mittens had trouble hearing. Suddenly the book began to glow, and seemed to reach out to Mittens. She backed up a little, fear creeping over her, and the light shot into her eyes, lifting her off of the ground. The information of the book rushed into her mind, teaching her all of the things she needed to know of her powers, something she had not really learned. The light stopped, and Mittens fell to her paws, panting heavily, as if she had just run for her life. The book fell to the floor in front of Skylar just as he opened his eyes, "It is done." he said and lifted the book from the ground. Mittens looked up at him, just as he stood up, "What the heck was that?" Mittens asked. "That was the only way the book would have taught you anything." he said and turned to her, opening the book's pages. They were all blank. "What?" she asked as her breath slowed. Skylar closed the book reverently, and slid it back onto the shelf he got it from, "It is a pure enchantment," he explained, "Only through a specific spell can this book be taught to another. Luckily my family has passed this spell down for generations. We were to only use it once it is needed, for you see, if someone is not worthy of this knowledge, it will kill them."

"Wait?" Mittens asked, "So you gave me knowledge that could have killed me without telling me it could kill me?" Skylar smiled brightly, "I knew you could handle it, you are the Magic Guardian after all." he said. Mittens seemed to calm down a bit, "Well, thanks!" she said, and looked down at her paws. Lifting them up, she pulled out a set of claws that pulsed with what looked to be water. "I understand now, but I still need to practice." she said and withdrew her claws, only to pull out two new ones. The right paw shined with claws made of light, while the other pulsed with darkened razors, "What are these?" she asked. "Light and darkness." Skylar explained, "The only two elements she could not master, for both are one and the same, yet different. Always together and yet separate." he said. Mittens let her claws sink back into her paws, and pulled out another set, her old metal claws. Once again she switched, finding claws that surged with lightning. "Spells are audible things as well Mittens." she heard Skylar say, "Don't forget, sometimes it is best to tell your enemy what is coming." Mittens nodded, and turned to leave, "Thank you!" she said and used her wind claws to sail through the window. Skylar smiled, "I thank you for delivering that book to me." he said. From the bathroom in his apartment, walked out Strats, a pink skinned NeoNeutrosian with fin ears and tiger stripes on her back, sopping wet. "And I thank you for letting me soak, I was just about dehydrated." she said. "Where is Grizzlar?" Skylar asked. "He's in the kitchen," Strats said, "I think he's cleaning out your cooling box!" Skylar placed his hand on his face and walked towards the kitchen, "Food needs to be paid for on Earth you know!" he said as he attempted to shoo the hulking NeoNeutrosian out of his kitchen.

A small yawn echoed through the decrepit hallway of the destroyed house of the Forrester family. Suddenly Rhino the hamster rolled his indestructible ball out of one of the rooms and out into the living room. He rubbed his eyes as he traveled the path by memory, "Morning cat!" he said, mostly out of habit when greeting Mittens. When she didn't answer, he finally lowered his paws, seeing the sliced up bed, empty of the cat. "Maybe she's in the kitchen." he told himself, and turned, to a collapsed pile of rubble. "Oh yah!" he said to himself. Angelira flew out of the same room he was in, her hair a mess from her sleep, "Wish you would have saved the bathroom." she said and looked up to see the same pet bed, empty, Where's Mittens?" she asked. "I don't know." Rhino replied, "But I have an idea on how to find out!"

"Oh Bolt, what have you done?" Mittens asked as she floated to the ground of the city. Everything she saw was either smoking or on fire, and where buildings should have been, just piles of rubble. Mittens wandered throughout the disaster area for a while, until she heard someone cry, "Help!" Mittens first swiveled her left ear to the sound, and turned her head to follow it, "Help me… {Cough}…somebody!" Mittens followed the cries, all the way to a human girl, with long blond hair stained with soot. She had on a halter top, showing all of her bruises and cuts as she coughed into the ground. Her legs were pinned by a large piece of a wall, and it looked as if she had been lucky to be alive at all. "I'll help!" Mittens said causing the girl to look up at her. "Hello?" she asked as she looked around, "Who said that?"

Mittens scowled as the girl looked back at her, "I did!" she said. "I can't see you!" she said and pulled what hair she had away from her face. Mittens could see the blood trickling from a wound in her head, "Oh dear!" she said. "Why can't I see?" the girl asked. "Don't worry!" Mittens said, "I'll help in any way I can!" and turned to the rubble behind her, "First things first; we get you free!" and moved over to the rubble behind her. Like Bolt would have she placed her paws under the large brick wall, and tried to lift it. "Ho, that's heavy!" she said to herself after she stopped. 'Sometimes it is better to let you enemy know what is coming!' she remembered Skylar say, and closed her eyes. "Ok book." she whispered to herself, "What kind of spell would be best for this situation?" Inside her mind, an image of a page revealed itself to her. She took the time to study it a little, placing the spell to memory, "Ok," she said as she opened her eyes, "let's give this a try." Pulling out her crystal claws, she scratched a symbol into the stone of the wall. "What are you doing?" the girl asked. "Magic!" was Mitten's answer. The symbol looked like an arrow, surrounded by a circle of vines, each one weaving into the other until they met up again. At the base of the arrow, was a Neutrosian character, one that like a bunch of lines randomly placed together in the shape of a bolder. Mittens placed her paw on the circle and spoke, "Eratha Meruchen." she said. Her words seemed to echo as she spoke, the circle shining a bright yellow as the ground beneath the rubble lifted up, pushing the wall off of the girl.

With a gentle tug, Mittens helped the girl out of the pinch right before the stone supports crumbled. "Thank you, whatever you are!" the girl said. "I'm not done yet!" Mittens said, and placed her paws on the girl's temples. Slowly, gently, she pulled her water claws out. Her claws seemed to expand, flowing onto the wound as a puddle and washing off the blood that poured out. The red slowly turned to a mossy green, and as soon as the tainted water fell away, the girl blinked, "My eyes!" she said as her vision cleared up, "I can see!" and looked to Mittens. "You…you're a…" she began. "A cat?" Mittens asked, "I know kinda different being rescued by an animal!" she said trying to sympathize with the human. Suddenly the girl turned around, finally seeing the wreckage for herself, "Oh my gawd!" she said and placed her hands to her mouth in shock. "I'm sorry!" Mittens said, "I could use your help though, to see if there are any other survivors!"

"Me?" the girl asked innocently as she turned around. Mittens simply nodded, smiling softly at the girl, "I'll…try!" she said and turned to follow Mittens out of the wreckage, "By the way, I'm Holly!" The cat smiled as she turned her head back to the human, "Mittens!" she said and turned back to her work.

Angelira flapped her wings hard as she and Rhino landed at Clera's door step. She had been carrying him and his ball in a net, one designed for her smaller body to carry easily. Rhino quickly rolled out of the net as soon as it hit the ground, and slammed his ball against her door, "CLERA!" he called out and pointed his paws in a gun formation, "COME ON OUT, WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!" The door opened within a few seconds, "Rhino?" Clera asked and looked down to him, "What's the emergency?"

"Have you seen Mittens at all?" Angelera asked as she placed her hand to his ball, right where his mouth was. "Y…yes." she said curiously, "She took off towards Skylar's place to get a book on magic. She's probably already gone by now." Rhino looked down, and then back up to the Neutrosian, "Clera," he said calmly, "I need my box!"

**End of Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 4 Despair

**Chapter 4 – Despair**

"Holly, check over there!" Mittens said as the two of them pulled out more and more survivors. Holly had just finished pulling out another girl about her age from a nearly collapsed building; the girl was unconscious so a few of the other survivors tended to her. "On it!" Holly said as she jogged towards the magical cat. Mittens jumped into the window of a destroyed apartment building, every time she did this she'd find someone dead or blood splattered everywhere beneath a large chunk of stone, however this time was different, this time there was nothing. "Ho, thank heavens!" Mittens said as she looked around. The stairs had been collapsed, but for some reason or other the actual room she was in was almost untouched. Broken TV's and radios scattered everywhere amongst shattered tables and a single chair with a missing leg was all she could find. "Hello?" she asked, "Anyone here?"

"There, see?" she heard a hushed female voice ask, "I told you doubling back was a bad idea."

"Shut up will you?" a man's hushed voice said, "That wasn't him anyway!" With a quick swipe of her claws she carved another circle into the ground, a circle that had another symbol in the middle, with two wavy lines on both sides of it. "Carliam!" she said, and one of the larger slabs in the room moved aside, revealing the stare case. "Who said that?" the girl asked as Mittens simply walked up to the stairs and hopped up, climbing them easily as she made her way to the second floor. "Shh! Quiet and they might just pass us by!" the man whispered. Mittens closed her eyes as she listened intently, her pointed fury ears swiveling side to side as she tried to pin point the sounds. Her eyes suddenly snapped open and she silently ran up the stairs, Turning at the top and running down to the middle of the floor. "MEROW!" she called out and used her stone claws to scratch the door. "Merow?" the female whispered, and Mittens heard soft footsteps slowly creep towards the door. Again Mittens scratched the door, and meowed, sounding as if she were a regular cat. "It's just a cat leave it alone!" the man said. "I'm a cat if you hadn't noticed!" the girl said and the door opened slowly, revealing Savage, now in a white halter top and black jeans, "YOU!" Savage nearly growled.

"You!" Mittens growled back and jumped up to her, latching her paws to the alien's head. "You two are both going to get us killed!" Dustin said as he quickly shut the door, grabbed Mittens from Savage's face before she could pull out her claws, and tossed the magical cat halfway across the room. His dark purple t-shirt wrinkled at the shoulder as he threw her, and his loose blue jeans faded in and out as they were enveloped in shadow and light. Mittens used her old instincts, turning in mid air and landing on her paws. "I should set you both on fire!" She said as she turned towards the alien and human. "What? Why me? What did I do?" Dustin asked. "Oh yah, thanks!" Savage responded sarcastically. "It's because of you, Bolt's in this mess!" Mittens told them as she slid her crystal claws out from her paws. "Bolt? Did you forget that he's the one hunting us?" Savage asked. "Never mind, you wouldn't understand it anyways." Mittens responded and turned her head down, away from them.

"MITTENS?" she heard Holly ask from down stairs. Savage froze in place, lifting her hand to grab onto Dustin's wrist. Mittens could see the alien calming down, slowly, but still, the fear was leaving. "I'm up here Holly!" Mittens called back. "Are you crazy?" Savage asked, "What if it's Bolt and he learned how to disguise his voice?" Mittens simply rolled her eyes, "He couldn't even do the wicked witch voice when he read to our children!" she explained. "That's sad!" Dustin said with an air of disbelief. "Where?" Holly asked. "In here!" Mittens called out again. "If you're wrong and it's him, I swear I'll haunt your ghost!" Savage nearly growled. She waited with baited breath as the door handle twisted, then the door creaked open, and Holly entered the room.

"Oh, you found more survivors." the girl said. "Unfortunately!" Mittens growled as she turned her eyes up to Savage. "Leave her alone!" Dustin warned, "She's sorry!"

"I didn't hear it!" Mittens said as she passed by them. "Bolt's not here either way."

"How do you know?" Savage asked. "The dog's my husband." the cat growled at the alien, and then turned away and whispered, "At least, part of him is." Again she turned to them, "I can just tell, it's like…I can sense him or something, I can't explain it." Mittens turned from them, walking back down the hall with an anger simply radiating off of her, "Well?" she asked as she reached to end of the hall and turned back to them, "Are you coming or not?" Stunned for only a second the two humans and the alien followed her, careful not to say anything to anger her again.

Rhino looked up at the flying Angelira, her miniature wings somehow holding him high in the air. "Hey?" he asked. Angelira looked down, taking her eyes off of the sky for a split second, "Do you think we'll actually get Bolt back?" he asked. Angelira smiled as she lifted her head back to her route, "Yes, but I get the feeling that it's going to be harder than we think." she responded. "That's what I thought too." he said solemnly as he looked down to the ground below. He had done this many times before, and somehow it never seemed to frighten him.

"I don't understand!" Dark Bolt said as he sniffed the ground. "They were here not long ago, but their scent just seems to disappear!"

"Having trouble?" Bolt asked from inside his head. Dark Bolt closed his eyes, sinking into his own mind, and looking his other half square in the eyes. "I don't need to hear it from a weakling like you!" he said. "I'm not weak!" Bolt said, only to receive his dark halves teeth in the back of his neck. Dark Bolt slammed the white shepherd to the ground, even with all of the chains still wrapped around Bolt, he attempted to stand. "You're weak!" Dark Bolt reiterated, "You can't even stop me. Just look at all of the people you could have saved!" Bolt struggled a little as he stood up again, "How can I do anything while I'm wrapped up in these chains?" he asked. "Pah, those chains are of your own making!" Dark Bolt said. "My own making?" Bolt asked. "Of course!" Dark Bolt told him, as if it were the most well known thing in the world, "These are your despair, your misery. No one else suffers them but you!"

"I know what they are." Bolt said, "And someday I'll lock you under them for good!" Dark Bolt stopped, and laughed at his words, "How can you lock me in them if you refuse to get out of them yourself?" he asked. "You think I haven't been trying?" Bolt nearly growled. "You could have escaped them any time, the fact that you haven't only ensures me that you have been enjoying my little display of destruction." the black dog replied with a smile. "I haven't enjoyed a second of it." Bolt snarled. "Oh come on, do be honest!" Dark Bolt sneered, "Only a few of your chains are actually lying on top of you right now!" Bolt turned his head, and indeed, only a few of the chains weighed him down. Bolt turned back to his dark half, shock and awe dominant on his face, "You did this on purpose." he said and felt the weight of the other chains slowly pile on top of him, "Of course!" Dork Bolt said as he picked up another chain and tossed it on top of Bolt, "I wanted to see if you actually wanted to be free." and with a sick grin threw another chain atop his light half, "Poor Bolt!" he said and tossed another large chain on top of the dog, "So broken hearted," and threw another chain atop the white shepherd, "so helpless," and another, "so…" and the last of the chains was placed on top of him, yet Bolt continued to struggle against their weight, "…Pathetic!" Dark Bolt finished. Bolt struggled against the weight of the chains, only to have Dark Bolt wrap one of them around his neck, pinning him in place, "Once I'm done with these two, I'll hunt down the hamster, and after that the flying girl, and finally, I'll hunt down the cat. Your wife will either bow before me, or die fighting. She only gets one shot at either, I'm not the forgiving type!" Dark Bolt growled, and turned from Bolt. "WAIT!" He said as he struggled against the chains, "YOU LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU HEAR? IF YOU HURT ONE HAIR ON HER HEAD I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!" he shouted, and it seemed as if a steal door closed on him, locking him away from Dark Bolt as the villain reemerged, his crimson eyes shining with even more malice than before. "Enjoy the show Bolt, it's going to get even better now!"

**End Chapter 4**


	5. Chapter 5 Team

**Chapter 5 – Team**

"Come on people keep moving!" Holly commanded as the refugees they found followed her through the destroyed city. "We need to find shelter before the sun sets!"

"I still can't believe he was capable of this!" one of the refugees said. Mittens lowered her head, knowing full well what part of her husband was actually responsible for the destruction. They were now over fifty strong, and searching feverishly for supplies. Mittens had placed Holly in charge of the group a while back, fearing her own judgments on certain situations. She would constantly use her magic to grow food, quickly mastering new verbal spells as they were needed. Some spells she no longer needed to say, but simply needed to draw the circle in the dirt to make it work. "Don't count him as dead yet!" Savage said, "He's still out there!"

"Would you give it a rest?" Dustin asked her, "Think of food instead, maybe you can find us some meat!" Savage sneered at him, but somehow calmed down when she looked into his tired eyes, and with a sigh nodded, "Alright!" she said, "I'll need some muscle to help carry it." Dustin and one other man nodded and followed her as she closed her eyes and sniffed the air. "You alright?" Holly asked as she fell behind to Mittens' position. "Yah!" Mittens sighed as she lifted her head, "It's just…I don't want to believe it myself."

"From what you told me, it's just some darkness controlling him, he's probably fighting it the whole way!" Holly tried to reassure. "I hope that's true." Mittens said as she lowered her head back down. "Hey, listen to me." Holly said as she knelt down and picked Mittens up so that the cat had no choice but to look her in the eyes, "He needs you to believe in him more than he needs you to slap sense into him, sometimes that's all it takes." Mittens shifted her eyes, seeing that it was far too uncomfortable to move her head, and began to think, "Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to be the optimistic one for a change." she said, "Ok, and thanks!" Holly simply smiled, "You're welcome!" she said and placed the cat in a hug, one witch Mittens returned. "Mittens!" she heard a familiar voice call out, and the cat turned her head to look up. There fluttered Angelira, flapping her wings as she carried Rhino in his net. "There you are!" she said as she set the ball down and dropped the net, "We've…[gasp] been looking…[huff] all over…[wheeze] for you!" Rhino quickly rolled his ball up to the human and rammed it into her shin. "Alright girl, put the cat down!" he said, his anger flaring quickly. "Rhino! Angelira! How did you find me?" Mittens asked as she jumped out of Holly's arms. "You're not that hard to find!" Rhino suddenly said, and turned to meet her gaze, "What's the big idea of trying to leave us behind?" Mittens chuckled a little as she felt embarrassment flood her mind, "Yah!" Angelira asked, "I thought we were supposed to be friends."

"That's kind of why I left you behind!" Mittens tried to explain, only to have Rhino interrupt her. "Leaving your friends to wallow in misery as you march off to certain death is the best you could come up with?" he asked. "No, I just didn't want to get you involved!" she said as she turned to explain. "But Mittens, what if we could help?" Angelira asked. "Well…" Mittens started and was once again interrupted by Rhino, "It's like that show with the four friends helping others because the military is after them, we never leave each other behind because more than friends, we are a team, and there is no 'I' in 'TEAM'!" he said, and glared daggers at the cat. Mittens remained silent as she forced herself to think about what he just said, "I'm sorry!" she finally responded. "Yah, I thought you might want to…what?" Rhino said, only now realizing what she actually said. "I'm sorry guys, I thought that by keeping you out of it, you'd be safe, but I guess I really didn't think about what you wanted to do." Mittens told him. Rhino left his eyes wide open as he looked to her, blinking only to reassure himself that he had heard her correctly. "Well…" he said, "Ok than!"

Angelira smiled brightly as her body shook with excitement, "I can't wait!" she said, "Let's go get Bolt back!" Mittens smiled at the excited Neutrosian, and turned her focused eyes back to her hamster friend, "Ok, Rhino, do you have you equipment?" she asked. His ball suddenly lit up on the inside, screens and keyboards holographically appearing on all sides of him, "You bet I do, never thought I'd get to use the new version!" he said as he turned to his left. "I need you on surveillance, Angelira take to the skies, see if you can tell which way Bolt is heading!" Mittens ordered. "On it!" the miniature Neutrosian said as she saluted the cat, and with a few flaps of her wings, took off as high as she could go. "Holly, you stay here and try to get the survivors underground, it'll be the only safe place until we can get Bolt back to his old self." Mittens said as she turned to her new friend. Holly simply nodded, turning to the group of refugees, "Alright you heard her, into the subways, move it people! I need messengers to go find the three foragers, you and you go find them and tell them to meet us at the station at Arland and Fifth Street, GO!" she ordered as she moved through the crowd. "Rhino can you type and roll at the same time?" Mittens asked. Rhino glanced at her only slightly irritated, "Not very quickly!" he said. "It'll do. Come on, we need to keep moving." she responded and began walking with Rhino hot on her heels.

"Uh, why are we moving?" Angelira asked as she came in low. "I don't want those poor people to be caught in the crossfire if we do meet up with Bolt, his powers will collapse the tunnels on top of them." Mittens responded. "Oh!" was Angelira's response, and she flapped her wings, getting more altitude and keeping an eye open for her target. "I'm getting a faint reading of Bolt's energy signature, but I can't narrow in on it yet." Rhino suddenly said, "I'll need to boost my signal!"

"No need, just look for the inverse of Bolt's energy signature." Mittens suddenly said. Rhino looked to her in confusion, "How is that going to help?" he asked. "Dark is the opposite of Light!" she explained, "Yin and Yang!"

Rhino simply scoffed, and looked to her, "What, like Bolt and this other dog are two separate beings?" he asked. Mittens stopped in her tracks, turning to the hamster, her focused eyes burning a hole into his head, "I know Bolt better than anyone," she said, "Better than you, better than Angelira, and probably better than Penny. Everything Dark Bolt has done, everything he is doing, has reminded me of what Bolt would **not** do. Dark Bolt is the polar opposite of **my** Bolt, just look for an inverted power signature and you'll find him, trust me!" Rhino remained quiet as she glared at him, a feeling of uneasiness beginning to envelope him, "Ok." was all he squeaked out, and quickly tapped his claws against the holographic keyboard. Suddenly his screen lit up, lighting up red as if it were a Christmas tree, "What the…?" he asked and turned to the cat, "how did…?" Her smile was the only answer he got, her confidence brimming to burst, "You know what…never mind!" he said as he shook his head, "It looks like he saturates the air with his energy whenever he attacks using his powers! It's still lingering!" Mittens began walking again as he followed closely, "So you can't pin point him." she surmised. "Oh I can, it's just I've never seen so much energy just sitting in the air before, it's like he's an infection and the planet is his host." Rhino told her, and tapped a few more buttons, "I found him!"

"Where is he?" Mittens asked. "Uh, guys!" they both heard Angelira say. Mittens and Rhino looked up, finding her close by and pointing to the horizon, "I think we have company!" Mittens followed the shrunken Neutrosian's finger, squinting only a little as she found Dark Bolt standing there on a large pile of rubble, his back turned to them and the remains of the green fire escaping his mouth. Angelira gulped as Rhino reached his clawed paws to his head and twisted it, cracking his neck to pump himself up. Mittens closed her eyes, and then opened them again, "Bolt," she whispered, "I promised, I'd get you back, and I'm going to keep that promise." Staring at the dog she once called husband, she finally released her own thoughts to herself, 'Even if you kill me!' she thought to herself. "Come on guys, stay close to me." she said, and the three of them began their journey.

"Pathetic!" Dark Bolt nearly shouted, the sneer on his face beaming with malice, "These humans and their weakness are but to laugh at!" Suddenly he heard a rumble, and the walls beneath his paws began to shake, "Ah, it's about time!" he said, and turned his head. What he saw was the far off figures of soldiers and tanks, the humming of a helicopter quickly followed and he looked up, seeing fighter jets as well. "Oh, my." he said and smiled, "I must be on the top five list for them to bring out everything!" The joke only reaching his ears as he smiled evilly, "I can't wait!" he said and again let the green flames escape his lips, his eyes shining the malicious red of the evil he represented, "This will be fun!"

**End Chapter 5**


	6. Chapter 6 Massacre

**Chapter 6 – Massacre**

Dark Bolt waited, allowing the tanks to get closer to him, almost as if he were waiting, playing a game with them, "Well, this is an honor!" he shouted as one of the commanding officers stood up from one of the tanks. They all stopped, just short of where he wanted them to be, "Bolt!" the man shouted through a mega phone. "Sorry, he's not here at the moment, but if you'd like to leave a message…" Dark Bolt teased, trying to lure them in closer. "If you're not Bolt than who am I talking to?" the man asked. "I am his sins and regrets. You may call me Dark Bolt!" he shouted back. The man shook his head, and placed the megaphone to his lips again, "Dark Bolt, then. Stop your tyranny and come with us, or we will not hesitate to destroy you, you have only one chance!" he shouted, "I'm giving you this chance as an old friend Bolt, please cease attacking innocent people!"

"Ah, General Ducker, wonderful to see you again!" Dark Bolt shouted back, "But I'm afraid I'm not the same Bolt you knew, quite literally." Dark Bolt opened his eyes wide, releasing his laser vision at one of the tanks, piercing right through the armor. The men inside didn't even have time to evacuate when the machine exploded, "ATTACK!" Ducker shouted, and each of the tanks let off a resounding blast when they fired off a shot.

"What the…?" Mittens asked as she heard the cannon fire of the tanks, "The military's here?"

"That kind of makes sense when you think about it!" Angelira said from her back. "But, how did they find him?" Mittens asked. "Good question." Rhino responded, and let his holographic computer vanish, "We got to get going!" and rolled underneath Mittens. She was just about to ask why he did that, when she was suddenly lifted up by what looked to be a metallic shell of a giant hamster with Rhino and his ball embedded in the head. "Hang on!" he said, and Mittens quickly pulled out her grass claws, latching them onto the metallic surface of the machine before he took off. "And why didn't you do this before?" Mittens asked. "I didn't want the attention, plus it's not fully charged yet!" he answered as he kept running.

Dark Bolt twisted in mid air as he dodged another shot from the tanks, his smile spread wide with malice. He landed on all four of his paws and took in a deep breath, "Brace yourselves!" Ducker called out and Dark Bolt let out a loud super bark, lifting three tanks from the ground. "Damnit!" Ducker shouted as he tried to organize his troops. "Sir!" one of the solders said as he ducked down next to him, "The weapon is ready for deployment."

"I didn't want to have to use it on my old friend." Ducker said quietly as he heard another explosion from behind the crumbled wall. "Sir?" the solder asked, waiting for his order. "We have too many of our own in there, I'm not going to fire it off with them in the line of fire!" Ducker shouted as several more explosions went off, mostly from tank fire. "Sir, I know he's your friend, but this destruction has to stop!" the man said. Ducker turned to the man in anger, "But not at the cost of MY men." he said. "Sir," the solder shouted back, "With all due respect, you know it needs to be done, before he kills anymore innocent people." Ducker looked down, defeated by the words of his own solder, "Get it ready to fire," he said softly, "I'll order the retreat on your mark."

"Thank you Sir!" the solder said and pulled up his radio, "Sigma One, we have confirmation of target. Coordinates, North 38.103°, West 75.008°, please allow for evac, before initial firing!"

"Copy that." the dispatch responded. The solder looked up to General Ducker, "The message has been sent." he said. Ducker simply nodded and turned to another of his solders, "Alright, call in for immediate vehicle support, we need these men out of here as quickly as possible!" he said, "And get the wounded to safety!"

"Yes sir!" the second solder saluted, and turned, waving his arm in the air. "Sorry Bolt!" Ducker whispered and turned to help his men on the battle field. Solders came out of hiding, firing their guns at Dark Bolt as they traveled from cover to cover, drawing his attention from those that were helping the wounded to an evacuation jeep. Dark Bolt would quickly fire off his laser vision, which they dodged and returned fire. Few tossed grenades at him, but usually missed, and any that would have hit him, he shot with his laser vision. "Wounded evacuated Sir!" Ducker heard from one of the solders. "Good. Have the new vehicles arrived?" he asked. "On rout Sir." the man responded just as Bolt's laser vision pierced his shoulder. "GEAAAH!" he shouted, and Ducker grabbed him as he toppled forward. "Private!" Ducker called out, as he held the man. "Uh, I'll be ok sir!" he grunted and lifted himself up. "You sure Private?" Ducker asked, just as he was grabbed by two other men. "Looks like the vehicles are here, you should get out, I'll draw his fire and distract him." the man said as he lifted his rifle, his breath deep and heavy. "What are you talking about?" Ducker asked as he was forcefully pulled away, "Let me go!" The private watched as his general was hauled into one of the vehicles, and then driven away, "Stay safe General!" he said to himself and then turned to his radio, "Fire the Sigma One!"

"Roger that, Sigma One in firing position in ten seconds!" the dispatcher said, and the man moved out from his cover. With pain in his arm he lifted his rifle and began firing at Dark Bolt. The sickening look on the dogs face pushed him forward as his bullets became lodged in his steel fur. Dark Bolt almost immediately stopped shooting at the fleeing vehicle to return fire, watching as the man dodge rolled to the left. Bolt breathed in deep as the man stood back up and ducked behind a pile of rubble, letting the super bark slam into that instead, scattering his hiding place. The man quickly lifted his rifle and began firing again as he advanced, pelting the dog in the forehead with each bullet. Dark Bolt flinched at each impact, his irritation growing as he let loose a stream of green fire in the solder's direction. With quick thinking, the man tucked his body in, and rolled out of the way, keeping his fire on the black shepherd as he stood back up. Dark Bolt turned his head, and let loose with another shot of Laser vision, catching the man in the chest. The private froze as the beam pierced his heart, and soon fell to his knees, blood finding its way to his mouth. He looked up, and with a smile, fell dead to the ground.

Dark Bolt saw the gesture and curiously looked up, finding a dot of bright blue light descending quickly on him. However, when he tried to move, he found himself weighed down by all of the bullets he had let hit him, and again he looked up, just as the beam slammed into him. Dark Bolt grunted as the beam slammed into him, covering only a distance of a few dozen yards at first, but quickly growing to encompass a couple of miles, only barely singing the bumper of the Jeep carrying General Ducker. "Son of a bitch!" he shouted as he watched the beam fade as quickly as it appeared.

Rhino pushed the Mecha Rhino as fast as it would go with Mittens and Angelira holding on for dear life as they finally reached the crater. "This…" Rhino tried to say as he searched his mind for the words. Mittens released her grip on Rhino's machine and used her wind claws to soar out to the middle. There he was, Dark Bolt, bruised and bleeding from wounds in his forehead and one of his legs. Flopped on his side as if unconscious but breathing in pain, "Bolt?" she asked as she tried to near him. His eyes flew open, anger and pain in them, flooding his vision, "Bolt isn't home, he'll never be dominant again!" Dark Bolt said. "Just let him out!" she pleaded. "Hah, not a chance!" Dark Bolt said as he rose to three of his paws. The pain that shot through him stopped him from doing much else, "Come to finish me off?" he asked. "I can't do that!" Mittens admitted, "I love him too much." Dark Bolt smiled selfishly, "And what about me?" he asked, "I'm his sins, his pain. The regrets he…"

"I love you as well!" she said calmly. Dark Bolt stood there in shock as she kept explaining it, "You're him, the part he tried to hide. Sins, pain, regret, these are all things we live with. I'm just sorry I never knew about them, maybe I could have accepted them sooner." Dark Bolt watched in surprise as she walked up to him, "But please, give him back to me, I need all of him, not just the dark, or the light." she pleaded a single tear falling to her cheek. Dark Bolt stood there stunned for a moment, and growled at her, "Come and get him!" he challenged, and his mouth lit up with green flame. Mittens gasped and used her wind claws to lift herself up high off of the ground as he breathed his flame across the ground, surrounding himself in it, and vanishing when the flames interrupted her view.

"MITTENS!" she heard Angelira call from behind her. She turned around, meeting her two friends as they ran to meet her in the middle of the gigantic crater, "What happened?" she asked. Mittens walked up to meet them, her tears flowing uncontrolled as she looked up to them, "I tried to talk to him, but it didn't work." she said, "I just don't know if I can fight him when it comes down to it. They just look so similar."

"That's where we come in" Rhino said, "I've designed this new nanomech suite to be able to match Bolt's powers. The green flames, his laser vision and super bark, all powerless against it, I just need help with the paw to paw part."

"I can always fly circles around him, being as small as I am now I'm a much harder target to hit!" Angelira said, and flapped her wings, floating into the air only a few inches. Mittens smiled, grateful that her friends were finally at her side, "Thank you both." she said, her tears now happy ones, "Now, let's go get Bolt back!"

**End of Chapter 6**


	7. Chapter 7 Break

**Chapter 7 – Break**

General Ducker sat at his table, staring at a picture of him and Bolt as they stood together with an entire platoon of solders behind them. Ducker was kneeling down and had placed his hands on the white shepherd's head while Bolt panted happily at the camera. He remembered that Mittens had not wanted any part of it at the time, but now he wished that she had. Rhino and Penny on the other hand, had both been excited to join in, right next to Bolt. "It's not easy, is it?" he heard someone ask. When he looked up from his seated position, he found his superior, a tall, lightly tanned, built man with a trimmed grey beard and mustache. The man had salt and pepper hair underneath his military hat, and was decorated with all sorts of different medals. "No sir, it's not!" he said almost angrily as he turned his gaze back to the photo. "I know you don't like it much but protocol still stands, I still am your GA." the man said. Ducker hesitantly stood up, placing the picture on his desk as he saluted the man, "Apologies, General Beckard, Sir!" he said forcefully. "At ease." the General of Army said as he saluted back. Ducker slumped back into his chair, and picked up the picture again. "He was my best friend." he whispered to himself. "I know just how you feel." Beckard said as he sat down across from him, "It's not easy watching your friends die."

"No offense General, but you've never actually had to make the call to kill your friend." Ducker said darkly. The GA was just about to reprimand him when they both heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" Ducker said, allowing the other man to join them. "Sir?" one of the privates asked as he poked his head in, "You have to see this!" he continued, causing the two men to lift off of their chairs and look to each other before Ducker placed the picture back on his desk, and the two of them followed the private closely.

"Oh, why is it so hard to track him?" Rhino asked as he typed furiously at his holographic keyboard. "You said that Dark Bolt saturates the air with his energy when he uses his attacks, maybe the residual energy is hiding his really low power level." Angelira suggested as she sat on top of his ball. "I thought of that, problem is, I can't find a way to separate the two energy signatures, they're identical, and Bolt's energy signature just vanished entirely." he said as he focused. "A simple 'thank you' would have been nice!" she mumbled, to which Rhino turned his head up to her, "I can speak 'mumble' you know!" he said. "Hey, just kiss and make up already, I don't need you two bickering in the middle of a battle!" Mittens nearly growled as she walked back up to them. Rhino and Angelira both gawked at the angry cat, and then to each other, "Not a chance!" Angelira whispered to him as Mittens passed by, and Rhino simply glared at her. "The cat has a point!" he whispered to her angrily, "We aren't as effective if we're fighting each other, so for now, let's just let bygones be bygones!" Angelira took a deep angry breath in through her nose, almost sounding as if she were hissing at him, "Fine!" she breathed out in a huff and stood up to fly away from him, "But I'm still not kissing you!"

"Agreed!" Rhino responded in his own mumble.

"Wait, Bolt's alive?" General Ducker asked as he watched the video someone had taken. The news was rolling and it showed a home taken video of Dark Bolt limping down the street, he looked up at the kid and the camera as they quickly hid behind a brick wall. When the person reemerged, Dark Bolt was gone again. "Where was this taken?" Beckard asked. A few of the people turned away from him, and leaving one of the solders to answer, "Right outside of the town we confirmed the hit sir!" he said. "We need to find Mittens!" Ducker said, and turned away. "We need to strike now." Beckard challenged, causing Ducker to turn to him. "If I know Bolt, he won't stay long." he said, "The only one who might know where he is would be his wife!"

Mittens quickly sneezed as she continued walking, the single act caused her to curiously look around as she placed her paw up to her nose. "You ok?" Angelira asked. "I think someone's talking about me!" Mittens responded.

"Out of the question." Beckard said, "What we need to do is strike while he's still wounded, take him out on the second shot!"

"And what if you're wrong about the target area?" Ducker quickly asked, "Hundreds of innocent people will be killed!" Beckard was just about to open his mouth, and thought better of it. He knew what General Ducker had said was true. "So we find the only one who can find him first, and then set the target." Ducker said. Beckard sighed, and began walking out of the room, "Sir?" one of the solders asked. "I'm not going to be here when she arrives. All personnel and authority will be in General Ducker's hands." he said, causing Ducker to relax, "But if what you decide causes more civilian casualties, you will be court marshaled." Ducker stood straight up, saluting the GA as the man exited the room completely, "Sir, yes sir!" he called out. "At ease!" Beckard said as he shut the door behind him. Ducker spun around, pointing at one of the women behind a computer, "Find Mittens, get her here ASAP!" he ordered. "Yes sir!" she responded and turned to her computer, typing quickly. "Hale all radio frequencies!" he said as he turned to another man, "Maybe Rhino has his communication equipment up. Tell him we need Mittens' help."

"Yes sir!" the man said and exited the room to find a radio. "The rest of you, pray, cause we're going to need all the help we can get now!" Ducker said as he placed his hands on a nearby desk.

Mittens could feel the glares Rhino and Angelira were giving each other. It was driving her crazy how they were starting to fight, 'I swear they remind me of an old married couple.' she thought to herself. She reached the crest of the hill, finally leaving the rubble of the destroyed city behind, and coming face to face with the first complete city she'd seen in a while. "Well," Mittens said out loud, catching both Rhino's and Angelira's attention, "Where do we start?" she asked. The city was in full swing, people waking and driving to work, some were shopping and others chatting at outdoor tables. "I can't believe they didn't see all of that!" Rhino said. "They probably did, remember it took us a couple of days to get here!" Mittens reminded him, and all three of their stomachs growled. "Sorry Mittens, but magic grown vegetables aren't enough anymore. We need meat." Angelira said as she rubbed her stomach. Rhino whined in response, but nodded his agreement. Mittens was just about to protest, but her own stomach growled out loud, all by itself, "Ugh, alright!" she sighed in defeat. "YAHOO!" Rhino and Angelira shouted as they celebrated. The distraction caused Rhino to miss the little blinking light on his ball just outside his field of vision.

"Sorry Sir, no response yet!" one of the solders said to Ducker. "Have you tried all of the channel frequencies?" he asked. "Yes Sir!" she responded. "Uh, he might have it on scramble, or even silent." Ducker said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "Try again, and keep an eye on those city cameras!" Ducker ordered. "Yes Sir!" the entire room shouted.

Mittens walked through the streets with her friends at her side. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon as they searched for food, "Remember when the two of us and Bolt were trying to get him back to Hollywood?" Rhino suddenly said. Mittens turned to him and smiled, "Yah!" she said and turned to a garbage bin. "I remember you telling me about that!" Angelira said, just as Mittens jumped up to the edge. "Nothing!" she said, and jumped back down. "We're not eating out of the garbage are we?" the Neutrosian complained. "You got a better idea?" Rhino asked, "Even if you have money on you it'll be too small to be of any use!"

"Oh, good point!" she said. Mittens turned her head as they walked down the street, the only ones seeing the group at this time was homeless people and runaways, maybe some late night partiers or nightshift workers. "There!" Mittens said as she spotted a restaurant, "They always have some good leftovers!" Rhino looked up and took off with her, Angelira flying close by as they safely made their way behind the restaurant. Sure enough, there was a man dumping the last of the garbage into the bin before he closed up for the night. "Ok, go!" Mittens said as the man locked the door behind him. She quickly jumped up, finding herself on the ledge of a full bin of food. Angelira lifted Rhino's ball all the way to the edge, and gasped at the sight, she'd never seen such perfectly good food going to waist. "See, what'd I tell you?" Mittens asked. "I think there's an entire pizza in here!" Angelira said, "Still in the pan!" Rhino had just about made a comment about her first words, but after hearing the second phrase, he looked into the bin, trying to find what she had seen. "Who cares?" Mittens asked, "Let's eat!" and grabbed a large chicken breast off of the top. Angelira shrugged her shoulders, "Hope nothing here is covered in dirt!" she said, and grabbed a large slice of pizza. "I still don't see the pan!" Rhino said. "It was a figure of speech!" Angelira told him, and began eating her pizza. "Oh!" Rhino said, and opened his ball to grab what he wanted.

**End Chapter 7**


	8. Chapter 8 Militia

**Chapter 8 – Militia**

Ducker slammed his fists against the table, "Damnit!" he said in frustration, "Why can't we find them?" One of the other solders moved from the desk in front of him, spinning around on his roller chair to face another computer that he easily stopped in front of, "We're trying our best sir, if only he had explained his inventions in English!"

"What, you can't understand big words?" another solder asked in a snarky manor, and suddenly they could all hear a loud hum from a machine in the corner, "YES!" a girl solder shouted, "HAH! Girls rule and boys drool!" she said as she popped up from behind a rather large machine and pointed at the snarky solder, a machine that looked much like a slot machine. Suddenly the table Ducker had slammed lit up, a few broken words were said and suddenly a hologram of Rhino appeared, floating there above the lit up table, "Is this on?" he asked, and they heard Angelira speak. "Yup, it sure is!" she said happily. "Thanks sweetie!" Rhino said. "This must be from before they broke up!" one of the solders said. "Wait, they broke up?" the girl behind the machine asked, "Think I got a shot now?"

"Hello friends in the Army!" Rhino said interrupting the conversation, "As you can guess this is a recorded message about how to use the Global Energy Tracking system, or GET for short."

"Yah, so you can … 'GET' to work!" Angelira said as she began to laugh. Rhino was about to scold her, but burst out laughing himself, "GET to work, HAH, that's a good one!" he said and cleared his throat to stop laughing, "It's not a complicated system once you can start it up, the first thing you do is say a command, now most of the system is voice activated, so just say something like 'Tracking' and the tracking system will activate. It will then prompt you to designate a target, like Bolt or me. Even Angelira is in the system."

"Wait I am?" she asked from behind what others could guess was a camera. "Yes, honey, it was necessary, not for me but for the Army." he explained. "Oh, so you're not stalking me." she said jokingly. Rhino simply chuckled, "I wouldn't do that!" he said, "There are other features, and the keyboard can be used to override or input voice commands as well. Once a hologram has been displayed you may use it like a touch screen, just place your fingers on the object to interact with it. Also the tracking system has its own satellite and self sustaining power generator, so blackouts will not hinder you, just limit you. Also, in case you get board, there is a holographic three dimensional chess game you can play."

"That's a hard game, I like regular chess." Angelira said. "Oh alright, I'll put in a holographic **normal **chess game as well." he said, and lit up his holographic keyboard, with a quick type of his claws, he put it down, "There, I did it just for you!" he said kindly. Angelira chuckled, "Thanks Rhino!" she said. "Anything for you Angel!" he said. "Not on camera!" she whispered to him. "Oh, sorry! I didn't know we were still filming, uh…There's a manual inside the cubby under the projector that Angelira and I wrote up to help you get started ok, bye!" he said quickly and the hologram shut down. "Cool!" one of the solders said, and was quickly interrupted by Ducker, "Tracker!" he said, and a hologram of a globe of the Earth came up. "Designate Target!" the computer prompted. "Aw!" the boy said, and Ducker continued. "Mittens and Rhino." he said. Suddenly a list of names popped up around the globe, "Designate Target Specifications." the computer said. Ducker looked down the list, finding names he never knew existed until he found just what he was looking for, "Mittens, Tuxedo cat, Neutrosian influence." he said, and the names vanished, letting the globe light up with a red dot at where she could be found. Ducker waited until the dot faced him and reached in with his hands, almost pinching the dot between both his thumbs and first fingers. The globe stopped spinning and he quickly spread his four fingers apart causing the picture to quickly zoom in, showing a picture of Mittens, Rhino and Angelira as they traveled. They talked with each other but there was no sound. "Wow!" the girl solder said in amazement, and Ducker placed his open fingers on the picture, and slowly began closing them. The zoom, went out, and he stopped when he could find a proper street, "There on sixteenth and Clements." he said, "Scan for open radio contact." A thin blue line quickly moved across the picture and suddenly numbers appeared nest to it, "There!" he said, "Hail that frequency, and get Rhino on the line ASAP!" Ducker shouted as he got the others to scramble.

Rhino yawned as he and Angelira followed Mittens closely, "Did we really have to start so early in the morning?" he asked. "Yes!" Mittens said sternly. She didn't want to admit it, but she was worried about something. Angelira fluttered down to the cat's back, "It's not fair, you let us stuff ourselves so that you could torture us with sleep deprivation." she complained. Suddenly Rhino saw it, that little red light blinking in the corner of his eye, "Oh, looks like I left my radio on silent." he said and tapped the light, "This is Rhino speaking how may I be of service?"

"About time you answered." they all heard Ducker say grumpily. "General Ducker!" Mittens said in disgust. "Good to see you to Mittens." the general said with a sigh. "What's the matter? Want to bring whatever war you're fighting now to us?" she asked harshly. "Oh, yikes!" Rhino whispered. Angelira cringed as she watched Mittens yell at Rhino's ball, "It wasn't my fault. I was under orders to try and apprehend Bolt." he said. "And thanks to me, the corrupt bureaucrat at the top is now in jail." she reminded him. "And now Bolt and I are good friends. Can we please move past my old mistakes?" he angrily asked. "I'm not doing it!" Mittens suddenly said. "You don't even know what I was going to ask." he told her in disbelief. "You were going to ask me to help you find Bolt, well the answer is no!" she said. "It's important!" he nearly shouted. "I'm not letting you use that weapon on him again!" she actually shouted. Ducker and Rhino both remained silent. Rhino, scared out of his wits, quickly opened his ball, and exited it, running over to Angelira, "I never want to be on the receiving end of her anger again!" he whispered to her. Angelira simply nodded her agreement. "So you'll just…" Ducker tried to say. "And don't try that 'innocent people' story on me either, you and I both know that he's far too injured to hurt anyone besides himself right now." she interrupted, "I won't help you kill the one animal in the whole world I love more than life itself!" Mittens reached into the ball, and with a single metallic claw, tapped the blinking light, shutting down the communication. "Let's go!" she said angrily. Rhino simply gulped, and crawled into his ball as quickly as he could, "And don't answer that again!" Mittens said as he closed the hatch. "Ok." was all he squeaked out, and followed her closely. Angelira landed on Mitten's back gently, cautious not to irritate her even more than she was now. She glanced at Rhino, the fear in his eyes made her feel sorry for him, even to her, he hadn't deserved seeing Mitten's wrath up close. He chanced a glance at her, and she quietly placed her hands together in front of her mouth, her sad eyes apologizing to him. He smiled a little, his fear vanishing at from him at her kind gesture. 'I have to find Bolt before the Army does, because now his life depends on it.' Mittens thought to herself.

Ducker sat down in the chair behind him, and rubbed his eyes in frustration, "Damnit!" he said to himself. "What exactly did you do to make her so mad, sir?" the girl asked as she finally sat down across from him. "Private Meggans; that is none of your business!" he told her. Meggans lifted her hands in defense, "Sorry sir. I apologize." she said. Ducker sighed, "It's not your fault Private. It happened when I was just a sergeant, my superior ordered my entire platoon to apprehend Bolt for something, said he had become a risk to national security or something. If it weren't for Mittens and her doubts, I think Bolt would be in a cell dropped in the deepest underwater chasm we could have found. She found out that Bolt was close to uncovering an illegal arms dealing operation he was running, and put him up for Court Martial in her own special way. He was sentenced and had his rank removed. I was promoted for some reason, and Bolt and I became friends. I think the higher-ups thought I had sent her in to investigate while I stalled or something. She hasn't forgiven me for being an idiot yet." he told her. "Sounds like she doesn't like you much." Meggans said. Ducker looked to her, his eyes filed with the sarcastic remark, 'well duh'. "I know sir, I'll be quiet." she said and looked to the hologram. Ducker stood up, "I need some coffee, why can't we install a freaking coffee machine in here?" he asked as he left the room. "Games!" Meggans said, "3D Chess!" Suddenly the globe was switched with a large three layered platform of eight by eight squares. "Play you!" one of the boys said. "You beat me?" she asked, "In 3D chess?"

"Hey, we'll see!" he said, and waved his had to her, "Lady's first!"

**End Chapter 8**


	9. Chapter 9 Water

**Chapter 9 – Water**

Mittens kept her distance from her friends. Or was it the other way around, she couldn't really tell. She was so angry now that she really didn't care one way or the other. The thought of the memory when Bolt was being pursued by the General Ducker just rubbed her the wrong way. 'I can't believe he has the gall to ask **me** to help him track down **my** husband!' she thought to herself, 'The military is still the same, destroy anything you can't control.' She made her way through town as she swam in her anger, "Did you find anything yet?" Mittens heard someone familiar ask. The voice was female, and sort of panicky as well as tired. She looked around for anyone she knew that may have been talking to her; instead she found just Rhino and Angelira. "What?" Angelira asked. "Shh!" Rhino hushed, "Someone's nearby!" When Rhino twitched his ears, she placed her hands over her mouth, "Sorry!" she whispered. "Finally!" another familiar voice said. This one was male and tired just the same, but he had a sort of happiness to him. "Food!" the girl said, and the three of them turned to an ally way. When they ran up to it, they saw two very familiar faces, "Daryl, Savage!" Mittens called out as she recognized them. The two of them turned, Savage with a large piece of pizza in her mouth and dirty, ripped blue jeans and smudged white blouse with the back ripped out for her wings. Daryl had on an overly large blue shirt with worn dark brown cargo pants and combat boots that looked even worse than he did at the moment as well as a large piece of steak on a trash can lid with what once looked like a salad. The two of them looked as if they hadn't slept in days, and Savage looked slimmer than before, almost sickly. "This is our food bin!" Savage said as she pulled the pizza out of her mouth and swallowed. She then grabbed the top and closed it quickly, "Were not sharing!"

"Hey!" Daryl said as he pulled his 'plate' of food away from the slammed lid. "Where…how…?" Mittens tried to ask. "How did you two get here so fast?" Rhino finally asked. Angelira flew up to the two, looking Savage in her eyes, "You both look terrible!" she said, "What happened?" Daryl grabbed the lid from Savage and opened it again, "There was a creature…a huge rabbit with a skull for a face…" he began. "Nightmare!" Mittens said in both fear and determination. "Yah, it found us on the streets while we were hunting for food and killed the guy that was traveling with us. Savage and I were able to climb what was left of a large building and jumped off. Thanks to her wings sails we were able to glide and escape to this town and hide, but it has been days since we've slept and the first real meal we've had in a while." he said. Suddenly he saw Savage choke, so he slammed his open palm against the spot on her back in between her wings, and up it came, just so she could swallow it again, "Even the food is trying to kill us!" she nearly sobbed, and took a much smaller bite out of the pizza. "Just take your time and chew!" he told her as he rubbed her back. "Oh no! Holly!" Mittens said and nearly turned around to go back. "They're fine!" he said, "They're underground moving along the subway, he'll never find them." He quickly looked into the bin and pulled out a banana, handing it to her she looked to it curiously, and he snapped the top, starting the peel for her as she finally realized what she was supposed to do. "Care to join us?" he asked. "Daryl!?" Savage said just about choking on her bite of banana. "There's enough in here for at least ten people, and we can only keep the fruit for a short time anyway." he told her. Rhino rolled his ball into the ally, "Actually, I think I can dry some of the fruit for us to preserve!" he said and quickly lit up his computer, "And…done!" Rhino quickly opened his ball and walked out, "It'll take a few moments for the self cleaning function to finish, but after it's done, I can convert it into a fruit dryer!" he told them. "I can use my metal claws like knives to cut and peel the fruit!" Mittens said. "I think we have a plan!" Angelira said. "Alright, but no stealing!" Savage said as she gave in.

By nightfall, the five of them had curled up together, trying to keep each other warm in the cold night air. Savage had wrapped her furry wings around Daryl and the others like a blanket. Somehow she looked happy to Mittens. The cat had been up a while now, keeping her eyes open and thinking. She just wondered why she was helping the one person she blamed for Bolt's condition, perhaps it was something in her head, she didn't know. Her eyes suddenly felt heavy, as they slid closed on their own and she soon found herself in her own dreams.

Sleep came with panic, her dreams containing nothing but the destruction of her world as Dark Bolt ran amok. Again Nightmare arrived and challenged him, only to lose and latch onto his face, merging with him and becoming unstoppable. Mittens was startled awake, breathing deep in her fear and frantically looking around. She was the first awake, but just barely. Angelira stretched and yawned as she awoke she stretched her wings and lifted herself up. Moving a few steps away, she flapped her wings, loosening the muscles in them. Rhino stood up on all fours, and shook off his sleep, "Morning everyone!" he yawned and made his way to do his morning rituals. Savage and Daryl woke together, almost as if it were practiced, "Let's grab our breakfast from the bin and take off, I think today is garbage day!" Daryl said, and stood up, gently removing Savage's wing from around him. "I'll agree with that." Savage said and stood up with him.

The five of them silently made their way through town, keeping to the main street in hopes that they could find something to tell them where to go. Suddenly, Mittens looked up, there in the middle of town was a studio, somehow she knew it, even if it wasn't Hollywood. "Bolt." she whispered to herself, and took off. "What?" Rhino asked as he rolled his ball to chase her down. Angelira flew close by, not wanting to let them out of her sight. "Think we should help?" Daryl asked. "Tch! It's none of my business!" Savage told him in a huff. "Actually it is. Remember, you were the one who killed that sailor guy." Daryl reminded her. "Uh…I'm a warrior!" she said, "I kill things all the time!"

"The man was protecting his friends, not at war!" Daryl said. "But, I thought you wanted Bolt dead!" she said. "Yah…I did." Daryl said, "But so far, revenge is not worth it." and turned to follow the magical cat. "Uh!" Savage groaned, "Ok I'm coming!" and ran after him. Daryl smiled as she came to walk nest to him, "Don't be smug!" she said, and folded her arms, "I still need you to teach me about this world."

"Well, welcome to a TV studio." he said, "This is where the TV shows you like get recorded and broadcasted."

Mittens kept to the walls as she made her way into the sets. Searching each corner and darkened hallway she could find. 'I just know he'll be here!' she told herself, and suddenly shadow passed by, it was small and retreating, "Got you!" she told herself and took off, quickly followed by Rhino, Angelira, Savage and Daryl.

"Bolt?" Mittens asked as she opened the door. The room was what she remembered to be a black room, she'd been in one after someone had taken photos of her house with Bolt and Penny playing out front, trying to reveal the location of her family to the world. She had been the only one to see him, and was happy to track him down by herself. The man was willing to hand over the photos after she had calmly explained that the bad guys would attack them relentlessly if they knew where they lived. (She threatened him and had him locked up for stalking.) She looked around, finding a man looking at a few pictures that had been completely developed, "Oh, excuse me!" Mittens said as she attempted to remove herself from the room, "Oh no problem, I'm done in here anyway!" he told her, and stepped over her, exiting the room himself. "He, he, he!" she heard when the door shut tight. "Bolt?" she asked after recognizing the voice. It was strained a little, and sounded as if he were just trying to sleep. "Please don't call me that!" the shadows said from under the desk. "Dark Bolt!" she replied, and let her eyes quickly adjust to the dim light, There he was, the outline of a black dog just lying there under the desk, pulled to the far side so no one kicked him. "So you found me!" he said to her. "It wasn't hard!" she said, "I just needed to remember my husband, he always missed the set." Suddenly Dark Bolt coughed, "Bolt must drive you crazy huh?" he asked. Mittens knew he was trying to insinuate that Bolt wished he was still a TV star, but she knew better, "He always said he'd do it all again, if only to fall in love with me again." she challenged. Dark Bolt turned his eyes down to the floor, "So he did!" he said, "I still don't know what's so special about him, he's weak, and helpless. Just a big puppy!"

"But he's **my** big puppy, and I love him just the way he is." Mittens said and looked down his body, the wounds were just beginning to heal, though she knew the pain must be unbearable. "Tch!" she heard him say, "I'm not about to let any of this keep me down." he said and shakily stood up, first crawling out from under the desk and out into the dim light. She could now clearly see the open wounds along his side and legs, each one almost as if it would swallow her whole, "Oh my gawd!" she gasped and placed a paw to her mouth in shock. Dark Bolt's eyes lit up green and out came his laser vision, piercing through the door right past her. He darted at it, smashing it open and racing as quickly as he could through the studio. When Mittens came out of the black room, she gasped again. Daryl was standing over a fallen Savage, and pressed his palms against her chest. Rhino and Angelira remained close, but helpless to do anything, "What the hell did you say to him?" Daryl asked angrily. "What happened?" Mittens asked, and ran up to the fallen alien. Savage gasped for air as she and Daryl pressed their hands against her bleeding side, "No!" she said, "She was hit by Bolt's laser vision?"

"What do you think?" Daryl asked and turned to Savage, "Stay with me!" he told her as he tried to keep the bleeding to a minimum. Mittens searched through her mind, looking for anything that could help, and quickly a memory arose.

She was looking down at her burnt and mangled paws as water surrounded them, changing to algae as they quickly healed.

Mittens looked to her claws, and out came the liquid looking blades. "Here!" she said as she closed the distance between her and the alien. She pierced Savage with the tips, and soon the water of her claws spread, falling into the wound under Daryl's hands and healing it. Daryl lifted his hands as both blood and algae seeped out of it. Within seconds the water was filled with the colors of red and green as they mixed. Suddenly the liquid popped, scattering across the floor and revealing a perfect skinned Savage as she fell unconcious. "What?" Daryl asked as he looked over the wound. "You still need to get her to a hospital!" Mittens said, "I can heal the wounds but I can't replace the blood, and she lost a lot of it!" Daryl simply nodded and stood up, Savage in his arms and ran, trying to find the nearest hospital. "Was that really Bolt?" Rhino asked after a moment of silence. Mittens let her head fall, "Yes." she solemnly said. Angelira simply folded her arms, looking to the floor in shame. "I can't believe it, now how do we find him?" she asked. "We just keep following him." Mittens said as she lifted her head confidently, "We stop him from hurting anyone else and we save him from being attacked by the military!" she said, "Now let's get going."

Angelira looked down, seeing Rhino as he typed away on his holographic computer, "What are you doing?" she asked. "Giving the hospital permission to use our insurance for Savage and Daryl and orders to give them the best treatment possible." he told her. "Oh, good idea!" she said as they followed Mittens out of the studio.

**End Chapter 9**


	10. Chapter 10 Balance

**Chapter 10 – Balance**

Angelira flapped her wings, staying at a perfect three inches above Rhino's ball. Her arms were crossed as she thought of poor Savage, and the pain the alien was going through. "What's up?" Rhino asked as he looked up at her. "Huh?" she asked as she acknowledged his voice, "Oh, just…thinking." she said and turned away from him. "You too huh?" Rhino asked. Angelira looked down at him questioningly, "I was right there!" he said, "Right there and I couldn't do a thing!"

"Don't beat yourselves up." they heard Mittens say, "I got lucky."

"Lucky huh?" Angelira asked. "Yah, I've been practicing water spells while with the survivors to keep them from getting thirsty, I guess it was only a matter of time before I was truly able to master the element." she said. Both Angelira and Rhino turned to each other in confusion, "What do you mean?" Rhino asked as they turned back to her. "Elements can only be controlled in my claws and fur when I have mastered their magics. It appears my body had half of them already mastered naturally." Mittens explained, "Now I just need to practice the rest of them."

"Ok I know of; fire, ice, water, earth, grass, and wind. What other elements are there?" Rhino asked. "Oh that's easy, metal, electricity, light and shadow." Angelira told him. "How does the metal one work?" he asked. "Metal is a control actually, you might consider it like alchemy. You take what metals are in the ground, extract them and reshape them." Mittens said. "Oh!" Rhino exclaimed, "That makes sense!"

"It might sound easier than the other elements, but I've heard of masters who have failed at controlling metal several times." Angelira said. "That's because it requires more understanding, you can't just throw any old metal together; at least that's what I learned from your brother's book." Mittens said. "Wait…that's how you learned your spells?" Angelira asked. Mittens nodded, confirming her question, "Not fair!" she complained, "I wanted to do it first!" Mittens looked to her as if she were crazy, "Your brother said it was dangerous!" she said. "It is, but I'm confident I can handle it. It's the only way to learn to control this stupid shrinking spell!" the Neutrosian girl replied. Mittens and Rhino turned to each other, and smiled. The two of them began to laugh as Angelira floated there, "What?" she asked, "It's true!"

A good distance away, Nightmare hopped along, jumping from roof top to roof top in search of his prey, "I can feel them!" he said to himself. Suddenly he stopped, and scratched behind his ear with his large foot. "I hate fleas!" he said, "I'll destroy them all when I get a better body!" He turned to his side as he watched the fleas behind his ear fall off and dissolve in the sunlight. "Heh, looks like I'm deadly to just about everything." he said with a vicious smile in his voice, "Maybe I'll destroy them now!" and with one powerful hop, dropped down to the street below. He landed square on the pavement, caving it in around him and flinging everyone around his impact to the side, some injured as they hit the ground and one even being killed as he broke his neck against the wall of a building. "I smell you!" he said under his breath as the people panicked around him.

A quick chill ran down Mitten's back and she turned around, "I feel like someone's stalking us!" she said, causing Rhino to open up his computer. "Let's see…" he said and gulped when it began to flash, "Nightmare!" he squeaked. "That's right!" they heard him. But when Mittens actually saw his bunny form, she lifted an eyebrow in confusion, "What happened to you?" she asked. Nightmare chuckled as he hopped up to them, "Your husband ripped my mask off." he said, "I thought you would have realized that by now, I can't be killed!" he said, and once again Mittens' focus was centered on his blood red eyes. Again she saw the world in ruins, buildings torn down to nothing and her friends slaughtered on the ground. Behind her, her children wept as they found Kevin dead, realizing they were trapped in the astral world, and in front of her, Nightmare fused with Dark Bolt again, becoming one entity. This time though, the dream didn't fade, "He, he, he, he, he!" the new Dark Bolt laughed and turned his eyes to her, "How will you fight me now?" he asked, and launched a barrage of green fireballs at her. They all passed right by her as she used her paw to shield herself from the attacks. One slammed into the ground at her paws, tossing her backwards.

Outside her mind Mittens had frozen, fear flooding her mind as she looked into Nightmare's eyes. "Not this time!" Rhino said as he let his Nanosuit take form. Angelira took two flaps of her wings and lifted off of the ground, soaring towards Nightmare intent on distracting him, "Don't look into his eyes!" Rhino called out, and Angelira turned just right to kick the creature in one of them. "Grah!" Nightmare shouted, more annoyed than hurt, "You'll pay for that!" He tried snapping at her, narrowly missing her as flew off again. Rhino slammed into the over sized zombie rabbit, and pushed as hard as he could, effectively lifting the creature off of its feet and running it into the alley. Mittens shook her head, clearing her thoughts and freeing her mind from the nightmare he was forcing her to live through and took several deep calming breaths, "It happened again!" she whispered to herself. She looked up, finding herself truly alone, and an idea came to mind. She quickly took off, following her friends down the alleyway.

Nightmare was close to laughing, as Rhino tried slamming his body into a large brick wall. With nothing more than a quick push, he tossed the Rhinobot aside. Angelira swooped in again, and kicked him in the other eye. "You do realize it's just annoying right?" he asked and pushed himself off of the wall, just so Rhino could plant him back into it. "Do you hope to beat me to death?" he asked. Suddenly something slammed into Rhino from the side, knocking it down. When Angelira turned her head to look, she found another Nightmare bighting down on one of the metallic legs of the Nonosuit. "Shadow Cloning!" she called out as she recognized the technique. Rhino lifted one of his massive robot paws and slammed it down on the clone, shattering it into nothing but shadows. Another clone tried sneaking up on Angelira, but she turned around to fly away and spotted him. She quickly took off, flying up as he tried to snap his jaws around her. Rhino came in again, and punched the clone, scattering it to the darkness. Nightmare stood still as they turned to him, and quickly multiplied, the doppelgangers separating from him and quickly surrounding the two of them. There were now almost fifteen copies. "What will you do now?" he asked. It seemed as if there was a smile upon his skull mask as the clones moved in, quickly trying to overtake the two heroes. Rhino picked his targets wisely as he dropped his massive metal paws on them. Quickly he began destroying the clones one by one, slamming his claws into them, or throwing one into the other. It wasn't until the real Nightmare opened his mouth, and shot a red beam of light through the shoulder of Rhino's mech, that Rhino had any trouble. Two of the clones did the same, narrowly missing Angelira and hitting Rhino's mech in the leg, toppling it over. Nightmare than multiplied again, surrounding Rhino with his clones. Each one opened their mouths, holding the crimson power in mid air before it shot forth, each one colliding with the mech.

"RHINO!" Angelira shouted from near the roof tops, just as one of the first clones jumped at her. She moved aside and let the creature fall as she flew down to Rhino, dissipating on the ground. She found him in his ball, his little paws held up as if to fight with them and his mech dissolving into the air around him. "I've still got fight in me!" Rhino said as he glared at Nightmare, at least the one he thought was real. "You got lucky!" the creature said, "Once I get hold of that ball of yours, I'll find the opening and swallow you whole!"

A small drop of bright rain fell from the sky, falling on the head of one of the Nightmares, and just as quickly, the clones disappeared. "Huh?" he asked. "So that's the real you, I wasn't sure." they heard Mittens say. She pulled herself out of the shadows of the alley way entrance, her eyes shining a brilliant white. Nightmare growled, "So you finally decided to join us?" he asked, "How touching." and multiplied again, immediately sending the clone to attack. Instead a sword made from light shot up from the ground, and he could see a spell circle scratched into the ground, almost as if she had planed the whole thing. The circle was about the size of her paw, with straight lines coming off of the outside, almost like a sun. Inside the circle were letters written along the inside, and one large symbol with what looked to be a sword through it pointing up. 'That's nonsense, it wasn't there before.' he thought to himself. "As you can see, I've gotten better at carving the circles for my spells." she said and completed her journey, standing next to her friends in defiance of his power. She quickly pulled out her crystal claws and again carved another circle in the ground. "NO!" he shouted, "I won't let you finish!" and multiplied into almost thirty, circling them and again firing off his crimson beam. It quickly hit a barrier made from pure light, the barrier growing as the beams intensified, until it slammed into them all, dispersing the clones and revealing the real Nightmare. He quickly got to his feet, but just as quickly saw Mittens leap for him, her claws extended as she landed on his back. He growled in malice only a little, but quickly found his body cracking and over flowing with light, "What?" he asked. Suddenly Mittens turned to her friends with a worried look, "RUN, I CAN'T CONTROL IT!" she called out. "What?" Rhino asked, but was quickly picked up by Angelira who flew up and away as quickly as she could. "What are you doing?" Nightmare asked as he tried to shake her off of his back. "I'm protecting my friends!" she said. "Then why so frightened?" he asked, and turned his head just right to look at her. He found her eyes closed with concentration, as she tried desperately to control her claws. He looked down, and watched as his body exploded, shooting the mask away as if it were a rocket.

Glass windows shattered inwards into the apartments and some walls bowed in. Every light bulb exploded with a flash and the entire alley went black. A small light lit up from the sky as Rhino and Angelira made their decent. "Mittens?" Angelira called out as they got closer. Rhino turned his light so that it swept across the alley way, "Mittens?" he called out. They almost missed her, sprawled out on the edge of a large scorch mark on the ground. It was only because she groaned that she was found. Her fur was completely covered in black soot and she coughed as she stood up, "Mittens!" Rhino and Angelira called out as they neared her. Are you alright?" the Neutrosian asked. "Yah!" Mittens coughed out, "I'm ok!" Rhino looked around, "What happened here?" he asked. "I tried to control light." Mittens said, "Bit I didn't do so well."

"You did better than some of the other sages I've seen!" Angelira said as she looked around, "Most don't live to tell the tale!" Rhino cringed when he heard that. "I figured it out though." Mittens said, "I need to master Light and Shadow to control them both."

"So just cast a few Shadow spells and voila!" Rhino said. "No you don't understand!" Mittens said quickly, "I've been practicing Light magic since I left Skylar's house, and only just now was I able to put it into my claws. I never wanted to touch Shadow magic."

"Why?" was all Angelira asked. With a huge sigh, Mittens sat on her haunches, and started shaking with fear, "Because it's just like Nightmare's power." she said solemnly. Angelira and Rhino both dropped their jaws, neither of them had expected anything like that.

**End Chapter 10**


	11. Chapter 11 Nostalgia

**Chapter 11 – Nostalgia**

"What do you mean it's just like Nightmare's power?" Rhino asked as they continued their journey. The sun had long set and Angelira's stomach growled out its displeasure, "Let's go." Mittens said as she turned down an alley way, "The dumpsters back here are behind a pizza joint and a bakery."

"Don't dodge my question Mittens!" Rhino said as he stood at the entrance. It seemed as if Mittens had stopped talking to him, but before she jumped up to the lip of the dumpster, he rolled his ball in her path, "I said answer me."

"I…" she began and quickly jumped up to the dumpster. Again she stayed quiet, and Rhino flipped his wrist, asking silently for Angelira to lift him up. They found Mittens munching on what looked to be a bagel when they arrived. Rhino quickly opened his ball, and made his way to Mittens. Before she took another bite he pulled the breaded treat out of her paws, "What makes Shadow magic like Nightmare's power?" he asked again, this time more forcefully. Mittens sighed, "You're not going to stop asking are you?" she asked. Rhino simply shook his head, and Mittens once again sighed, "It's the power to destroy anything." she said. Rhino's eyes softened and Angelira looked up from her piece of sausage pizza, "Just like Light is the power of life, Shadow is the power of death. It's fear, anger, and hatred. You can reduce anything to ash with it, and make your enemies face their worst fears on the battlefield. You can hide the truth, or just disappear, kill anyone you want, or even make it so they never existed at all."

The two of them watched as Mittens spoke, her fear brining up her concerns, "Now do you see why I don't want to dabble in Shadow magic?" she asked. Rhino stuttered a little, "I…I don't get it." he said. The three of them heard a familiar choked laugh and a cough from one of the darkest corners, "Bolt?" Mittens asked as she jumped down from the garbage bin. "He doesn't get it." Dark Bolt teased and coughed again. When Mittens approached him, she found a half eaten steak, a nearly finished slice of pizza and large pile of pigeon feathers out in front of him. The wound on his head was all but gone, though she could tell that his legs were probably in worse shape than before, "What happened to you?" she asked. With a snark chuckle, Dark Bolt looked up at her, "Worried?" he asked, "Don't be, Light and Dark are two sides of the same coin."

"You shouldn't move!" she told him, "It'll just get worse." With a laud growl, he bore his teeth to her, "I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" he said and lowered his anger, "Or your pity. I'm stronger than your weakling husband."

"If what you said is true than your wrong." Mittens suddenly said, "You can only be as strong as Bolt is." and she pulled out her fire claws. "You intend to fight me?" Dark Bolt asked. "I tried talking you into releasing him, what other choice do I have?" she asked, and lunged at him. Dark Bolt quickly got to his paws and ducked away, making Mittens land in the corner of his little hide away. Dark Bolt began laughing as he turned around, looking Rhino and Angelira in the eyes, "And what do you two plan on doing?" he asked. Angelira folded her arms together in fear as Rhino simply growled, wishing that his mech was still functional. He suddenly found Mittens latched onto his back as she meowed and hissed. "GET OFF!" he growled and slammed his side into a nearby wall. Mittens kept her hold as much as she could, so Dark Bolt continued to slam her against the walls of the Alley way. Finally she slid off his back after one particularly hard hit, one that knocked her silly. Dark Bolt quickly turned around and pounced, pinning her against a trash can that was nearby, his ragged breath teasing her facial fur as they looked into each other's eyes. Her whiskers twitched in his breeze as she tried steadying her breath as well. "Why do you try so hard to free him?" Dark Bolt asked. Mittens remained silent as she looked at the black shepherd. Dark Bolt quickly released her from his grip, letting her slide down to the ground, one of his front paws up in the air. "I'm not just going to let him take everything away from me," he said, "I'm going to be the one who survives." And with a quick turn, Dark Bolt took off at a break neck pace, passing Angelira and Rhino with nothing but a gust of wind following him. Mittens softly hit her head against the trash can, trying desperately to clear any unwanted thoughts from her mind. "What was that?" Rhino asked in fury, "You could have easily stopped him in his condition."

"Are you alright?" Angelira asked. Mittens opened her eyes, still breathing to calm her nerves, "Yah, I'll be fine!" she sighed as she pressed her back against the metal can. "Mittens, what happened to you?" the Neutrosian asked. "I guess I wasn't ready to fight him." she said. "Tch, I could have told you that!" Rhino said, "I know he looks like Bolt but he isn't, just a shadow."

"He's not just a shadow!" Mittens said angrily. She quickly calmed down, "I can see Bolt in just about everything he does. The things he doesn't do, the things he does." she said sadly, "I see it everywhere! It's driving me crazy. I can't just turn my back on him."

"He's trying to kill us!" Rhino said earning him a glare from Angelira. "RHINO!" she hissed, causing him to turn to her with a fright. "Even now I can see Bolt in him, we met in an alley just like this one!" Mittens continued in memory, "He dangled me over a freeway and tied me to him with that leash he had hooked to him." Rhino stopped to remember his own beginnings, how he found Bolt and Mittens in his trailer park, begging at his old lady's camper as he watched pointless TV shows. He had heard something outside, and looked only to find his and idol. Rhino sighed, "Ok, I understand." he said solemnly and suddenly his ball lit up like a Christmas tree, and beeped with a noise he couldn't ignore. "It's the army again." he said, and Mittens turned to him. "Don't answer, I'm not handing Bolt over to them…ever!" Mittens said, and stood up, leaving the alley way with her friends in toe. "Sure." Rhino said hesitantly, and followed his friend.

"Still no answer General." one of the solders said as he turned around to Ducker. The General slammed his fist into the table, and gritted his teeth, "Damn, why now of all times to hold a grudge?" he asked himself. "Why is she holding a grudge with you anyway?" one of the female solders asked, "I know of the attack, but there has to be something else." Ducker looked up at her, gritting his teeth in anger as he rubbed his now sore hand, "Yah, I was commissioned to use a new prototype weapon in him, it knocked the wind out of him was all." he said. "That's now why, is it?" she asked. Ducker looked up at her again, "Let's just say the weapon after that would have killed Bolt had Mittens not found the truth, and I would have been the one to pull the trigger." Ducker explained. With a simple nod, the girl went back to her post, monitoring the computer in front of her. "I don't blame her now!" she whispered. "I can hear you!" Ducker said. "Sorry sir!" she said and turned back to her computer. "But to tell you the truth, neither do I." Ducker said, surprising her.

Mittens, Rhino and Angelira traveled the three more days out of town, following what they thought were Bolt's tracks. Angelira took to the sky, swooping around as quickly as she could before coming back down, "This trail leads along the high way." she said as she met up with Mittens. "And the Rhinobot hasn't fully repaired itself yet, it'll take another four hours at least with the damage it sustained." Rhino said. Mittens turned to the long open road, "Then we walk." she said, and continued down the road, 'I promised to get you back, and I will.' she thought to herself.

**End Chapter 11**


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